Lawmakers return Tuesday to vote on pension reform deal

SPRINGFIELD — Lawmakers will return to Springfield on Tuesday to address the long elusive goal of passing a bill to deal with the state’s $100 billion pension debt.

House members have been told that only a one-day session is anticipated. Senators could also wrap things up on Tuesday, although they’ve been told the session could extend an extra day.

That schedule, though, is drawing complaints from some lawmakers that the pension reform bill is being rushed through the Legislature before people will have a chance to fully grasp all of its details, particularly those people who will be affected by the changes.

“That’s not enough time to digest it,” said Rep. Raymond Poe, R-Springfield. “You don’t give the people it affects enough time to do some research and crunch the numbers and see how it works. I think it puts everybody who’s affected by it at a serious disadvantage. Their people need a little time to digest this thing.”

The four legislative leaders reached an agreement on a pension reform plan Wednesday. Rank-and-file members were given outlines of the plan that day and more detailed information was to be provided to them late last week.

However, there seemed to be some confusion about some aspects of the plan, particularly on the issue of cost-of-living adjustments, the principal driver of increasing pension costs. Changing the current system of awarding 3 percent compounded COLAs to pension benefits has long be a key element of pension reform plans.

The agreement by the leaders keeps the 3 percent compounded COLAs in place for a portion of a person’s pension benefit. That portion is determined by multiplying a person’s years of service times $1,000. For example, a retiree with 30 years of service would get the COLA on a pension benefit of up to $30,000. Any pension benefit above that amount for that same retiree would not qualify for a COLA.

“If you don’t have the opportunity to look at all of the details and the impact of all of them, then I don’t think that’s necessarily fair to the people it impacts,” said Rep. Wayne Rosenthal, R-Morrisonville, even after members were told they would get a detailed briefing on Friday. “That’s still a pretty short order for anybody to sit down and analyze it, especially how it will impact the individuals. If you look at our constituency, it impacts them a lot more than it does other areas of the state. I think it is only fair to them.”

Not everyone shares the feeling that the process is being rushed. Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, who is running for governor, is a member of the conference committee that worked on pension reform throughout the summer.

“Our staffs are all up to speed on this. They’ve been meeting with us all summer,” Brady said. “The ability to analyze it won’t be difficult. They’re (public employee unions) are in tune, too. They’ll have ample time. As hard as it’s been to come to this conclusion, it’s not really all that complex.”

Brady said many elements of the proposal are similar to Senate Bill 1, a reform plan pushed by House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, which passed the House last spring, but which was defeated in the Senate. Those elements have been thoroughly reviewed already, he said.

Rikeesha Phelon, spokeswoman for Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, also said Democratic senators have been kept up to date on various pension reform options that have been discussed.

Kent Redfield, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Springfield, said lawmakers have a point about the compressed process.

“If you’ve got more time, from the unions’ part, to look at it, you can find those things that you think are good points to make in terms of putting pressure on specific members that have specific types of constituents,” Redfield said. “This makes it so the opposition has to be more general. It’s a legitimate criticism because this is a complicated thing with a lot of moving parts.”

It’s all of those moving parts that concerns Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill.

“Any bill would make major changes to the personal finances of tens of thousands of people in the district I represent,” Manar said. “What I would like to do, ultimately, is summarize this complicated legislation and communicate that so I can get some feedback. That obviously takes some time. The devil’s in the details with a bill of this magnitude.”